Safety ladder bracket



Oct. 28, 1952 K. BAXTER SAFETY LADDER BRACKET Filed Dec. 13, 1947 IINVENTOR. K/RBY BAXTER M KAWAJ ATTOQKEVS.

Patented Oct. 28, 1 952 KirbyBaxter..("llevela nd, Ohio,assignonbyamesne" -entaJQEoneP-haIf-to -Evelm-M. White;

' ,Gleyelandfil i *sn nmi seee sg s messes M 9 3 It is one of'theprincipal obiectsiof; th-,- mvn+ tion to provide anovel laddetudtructurewhich when collapsed occupies a minimum of space for storage in anyconvenientout-of-the-way'place.

It is another object to provide novel means whereby theladder'may'bequickly and'firmly clamped to a windowsill Off a building"with; the ladder; hanging downward along-the outer wall of suchbuilding. 1 f'ff Another object is to provide'a clampingmeans soconstructed that the weight-of the ladder plus that of thepersorr'or-persons-thereon is -operative to effectively increase theclamping' action effected by said means. "if

Other objects and advantages -'-will become apparent as the followingdescription proceeds.

To the accomplishment of the foregoing and. related ends, saidinvention, then, comprises the features hereinafter fully described andparticularly pointed out in the claim, the following description and theannexed drawing setting forth in detail certain illustrative embodimentsof the invention, these being indicative, however, of but a few of thevarious ways in which the principle of the invention may be employed.

In said annexed drawing:

Fig. 1 is a side elevation view of a preferred embodiment of myinvention showing the same in an unfolded position suspended from thewindowsill of a building;

Fig. 2 is a front elevation view;

Fig. 3 is a top plan view;

Fig. 4 is a side elevation view illustrating the invention in itscollapsed or folded position; and

Fig. 5 is a side elevation view of a modified form of clamping means bywhich the ladder may be suspended from a windowsill.

Referring now to the drawing and first to Fig. 1, there is shown thereina fragmentary vertical cross section of a building I through the window2 thereof, the term building as used herein including dwelling houses,apartments, hotels, commercial and industrial vbuildings, etc. Saidwindow is of the usual construction including a sill 3 having aprojection 4 into the room and a projection 5- extending outward of theouter wall of the building.

The ladder structure herein illustrated comprises parallel sidestripseach of which comprises a string of long links 5 arranged inzigza'g form with; the adjacent ends pivotally connected to one another bythe rods I I and 8;said rods extending across saidsides to thus jointhem together. As shown, the links 6] fit o' e reduced end portions.

of"sa id"rods 8,an'd nuts 9 or the like threaded onto such reduced endsare emplo yed for retaining said strings and rods together.

f' Piv t ily connected tof'eac'hofi the rods 18 and also pivotallyconnected tofone another arelinks In which, as best shown'in' Fig.assumean inline position relative to ojne another when the ladderunfolded to thus retain' the string of lin'kst ina zig-zagform;Saidlinkslq also serve as convenient handrails adapted to be'jgrasped'by persons soingup' or down the'ladder- Thus the rods 8 constitutefrungswhich are. spaced from the outer wall of the building to'thereby providetoeclearance.

A h rend' rollers H preferablymade of rubberer rubberlike material so an dm'ar'the "outer. wall of the building wheii'tlie. ladder is loweredfrom the window. Said rollers also facilitate unfolding of the ladder.

Connected to the lower end of the ladder is a short chain l2 providedwith a hook I4 which is adapted to be hooked onto the suspending means,

as shown in Fig. 4, whereby to retain the ladder in a folded condition.

Pivotally connected to the uppermost rod 8 is one end of a link I5 whichhas its other end pivotally connected as at I! to the outer end of agenerally horizontally disposed lever I8. Connected to the inner end oflever l8 are two hook members l9 and 20, respectively hooked under'theprojections 4 and 5 of the windowsill 3. The means which connects hookl9 to lever 18 preferably includes a turnbuckle 2| which may be suitablyadjusted to accommodate difierent sizes of windowsills, such adjustmentbeing preferably made in advance so that should it be necessary to usethe ladder in an emergency it can merely be hooked over the windowsilland lowered without necessitating such time consuming adjust-' ment.

The hook 20 is pivotally connected at the point 23 to lever l8 as by achain or s-hook 22.

It is now apparent that with the suspending means just described anyload applied at the I gaged with the sill projections 4 and 5, and,likewise, when one or more persons are on the ladder "of, I there;areQprovide d such drawing-together action of the hooks will becorrespondingly greater.

In the modified suspension means illustrated in Fig. there is a hookmember 24 associated with the inner projection l of the windowsill 3 anda hook 25 associated with the outer projection 5 01 the windowsill, saidhooks being pivotally connected to each other at the point 28 and thelatter hook member being. of Z-shape providing an outwardly extendingleg 21 to the outer end of which the ladder is connected, and aninwardly extending leg portion 28 disposed the inner end of said leverbeing disposed beunder the projection 5. Here, again, win the structureillustrated in Figs. 1-4, the weighto! the ladder will efl'ect drawingof the hooks 24 and 25 toward one another into flrm clamping relation tothe windowsill. In order to accommodate different sizes of windowsillsthe hook 24 is provided with a plurality of openings 29 about any ofwhich said hook 25 may be pivotally connected.

In summary, it can be seen that I have provided a safety ladder whichcan be adjusted to fit difierent sizes and types of windows and whichfolds up to a compact size so that it can be stored either under thewindowsill or some other convenient place near the window. Likewise, theladder can be made of light-weight material and can be made to anyconvenient length, viz. long enough to extend from 'one window to thenext one below or long enough to extend for two or more stories.

As an important safety feature I have provided a novel clampingarrangement which avoids the possibility of jarring loose but yet at thesame time such clamping means is of such simple form that it can bequickly and positively attached to the windowsill.

Other modes of applying the principle of the invention may be employed,change being made as regards the details described, provided thefeatures stated in the iollowingclaim, or the equivalent of such, beemployed.

tween said-opposed hooks, link means pivotally connected at its oppositeends to the upper por- "tionbi said outer hook and to the inner end ofsaid 'lever ancl other link means pivotally connected at its oppositeends to the upper portion of said inner hook and to said lever at apoint between the inner and outer ends thereof whereby the weight of aladder on the outer end of said lever is operative through said leverand both of said link means to draw said hooks toward one another.

KiRBY BAX'I'ER. REFl lRENCES CITED The following references are ofrecord in the file of this patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS

